In church this morning we sang the hymn by Robert Lowry titled, "Nothing But The Blood of Jesus." In all the recent encounters I and those I know have had with The Church of Christ, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormons lately... this song was such a faithful reminder of the purity of our Lord's gospel. Here's a link to it: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/n/b/nbtblood.htm
For those who believe baptism has a part in salvation, the opening lines of this hymn resonate soundly in Scripture... "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." It's a beautiful song. Water can never wash away your sin, no matter how holy it may seem.
Good news at work... we got a Produce manager! Things should smooth out now. I also saved back all the money spent on classes for the coming semester and more! Praise God for His provision. I was even able to do a little shopping this weekend. This means everything I will save over this semester will be gravvvvvy that goes toward Spring! I'll be calling Moody Tuesday or Wednesday for a status update on my application for Spring. At work Friday there was a noise coming underneath the wet rack where all the vegetables are sitting in most stores (with the thing that sprays them with water to keep them fresh). The guy had to cut up the black matting to get to the problem. After he did that, I knew it wouldn't be sensible to leave it cut open, so I had to do half of the job we've needed to do for a while now. I took all the produce off that side, removed the plastic layers and the metal small rack portions, cleaned it out, put new black matting on, and the produce back on. It took about 2 and a half hours. I still ended the week with under 40 hours.
This weekend I decided to drag myself downtown for Friday and Saturday night. I wanted to take advantage of the Friday night opportunity before school began again. I'm glad I did and I soon regained the energy I needed for the night. We had a good group. Pastor Ted brought his youth group and about 5 other guys came out. I ended up preaching for about 45 minutes straight without thinking. I'm thankful the Lord shined through and gave me the passion to preach the gospel without nearly the amount of distractions I've had lately in mind. I had 2 first time experiences this weekend in evangelism... 1. Friday night after giving a group of guys tracts, one of them mooned us. 2. Saturday night an older Spanish gentleman was encouraged by the preaching and asked me if he could give me a break! The guy preached the Bible 3-4 times that night! We'd never met him before! His name was Willy. I praise God for brothers in Christ! I tried to add the photo I took of him in this post, but I'm new to Blogger so we'll see what happens.
Please pray for Kenneth who we also spoke with Friday night. He believed he was a Christian, but did not believe in hell or that "the Bible is the Word of God." He walked away with a gospel message and hopefully God makes the seed we planted grow inside of him. He was very willing to talk and very kind in his tone. I gave him my email. Saturday we had a good group come out as well... lots of preaching. I also got to see Domenic again. It's been months since I last saw him. We had a doctrinal disagreement a long time ago and it's been hit and miss ever since. He seemed happy to see us.
What I really wanted to talk about in this post is the full reality of something God's been teaching me over the last few years. As part of my testimony I would always share the quote from one of Joshua Harris' books. H e said he was "in love with being in love." That perfectly described me before I was saved. Infatuation was my obsession. Through my experiences in relationships after salvation, it's been quite a struggle still. This morning the pastor spoke about Idolatry. He preached from Exodus 32 and the story about the golden calf. It was a fitting picture of idolatry. As time passed it was as if it were standing still for me.
I was brought to the depth my own idolatry. Why is it that I say women and relationships are my Achille's heel? Why is it that near the end of my last relationship I more and more often found myself overanalyzing, fumbling words, missing the mark, falling down, falling into obligation, etc.? Why is it that my stress and neck pain have been so strong? It's because I hadn't grasped the magnitude of just how bad this idolatry was. God surely taught me and continues to teach me in His good timing and sanctification that I must trust only in Him and place no security in human beings... no matter how much I care for them. No relationship outside of biblical marriage has any gaurantees. I told my best friend that there were times I asked myself, "What Would ______ Do?" and "What Would ______ Think?" only to insert her name. It had no place in those blanks. Near the end of the sermon, I was nearly in tears. I held them until I got out on the road. She was the only person I made eye contact with as I left. I left quickly this morning too.
I've learned so much lately. God can pull out the rug from underneath you faster than you can blink. I pray that I never make another woman or relationship into a golden calf and may whoever she is be patient with me in this endeavor.
I praise God for his perfect sanctification!
Prayer:
-Kenneth (above)
-Application in the magnitude of what God has helped me to see in my life
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